The election of Ricky Muir is widely regarded as a fluke. A quirk of democracy.

But Fairfax Media has learned that Senator Muir's victory, based on a minuscule primary vote of 0.51 per cent, was a byproduct of a personal spat that had nothing to do with him.

"It was a simple business transaction. When someone doesn't pay, you don't keep working for them": Glenn Druery. Photo: James Alcock

In the months before the election, Glenn Druery, the political operative known as the ''preference whisperer'' was being paid by Ashley Fenn, the Family First Senate candidate in Victoria, to engineer his preference deals with other micro parties.

Advertisement

The result of their fallout would alter the complexion of the balance of power in the Senate and prevented a Christian Right-dominated bloc from wielding as much power as the Palmer United Party currently does.

According to Mr Druery, a dispute over unpaid bills resulted in him walking away from the arrangement with Family First.

Mr Fenn confirmed on Monday that he had been paying Mr Druery but denied there was ever any problem with paying on time. ''Any invoice he gave us was paid,'' he said.

It is understood that after the relationship soured, Mr Druery orchestrated a number of crucial preference flows that propelled the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party past Family First for the final seat in Victoria. The manoeuvre also ended the political career of Liberal Helen Kroger.

Australian Electoral Commission records show that at key stages in the count, preferences from the Fishing and Lifestyle Party and the Shooters and Fishers Party went to Mr Muir, helping to keep him in the count and preventing those preferences flowing to Mr Fenn.

At the time Mr Druery was being paid by the Shooters in NSW and Fishing and Lifestyle in Western Australia. He filled out group voting tickets for both those parties, preferencing Mr Muir over Family First.

Mr Druery said: ''It was a simple business transaction. When someone doesn't pay, you don't keep working for them.''

Mr Fenn, who runs an affordable housing company, said Mr Druery was overstating his influence and that the Motoring Enthusiasts came ''up through the middle'' because no one had judged the party as a threat.

He said parties from the left and right were prepared to deal with Mr Muir's party as his party would never swap preferences with parties like the sex party and Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP).

Meanwhile, the acrimony over the sacking of Mr Druery as Senator Muir's chief of staff continues. On Saturday, Fairfax Media revealed an extraordinary incident report, accusing Motoring Enthusiast Party founder Keith Littler of sexism, racism and bullying and revealing a toxic power struggle between him and Mr Druery.

It has now emerged that Mr Druery offered to reform the disbanded Victorian branch of the Motoring Enthusiasts and work to get Mr Littler a seat in the state upper house at the election in November.

He has accused Mr Littler of being behind his sacking and also claimed he has a plot to take Senator Muir's seat.

98 comments

This story reveals a scenario that is all about the aspirations of certain individuals who could not care a jot about the nation. Getting a seat in the Senate is all about six years of good pay and perks to these representatives of minor parties and it is even better if you can then use your position to screw an even better result for yourself from a government that is forced to be nice to you in return for your support. Reforming the way the Senate is elected should be a very high priority for the major parties. I'll now sit back and wait for the screaming from the minority who think that what we now have in the Senate is good for Australia.

Commenter

Robbo

Location

Mt Eliza

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 6:04AM

What we now have in the Senate is good for Australia. The major parties do not have a "right to rule" just because they are a major party.

Commenter

DSM

Location

Perth

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 6:26AM

Problem is, the major parties aren't changing it to make it fairer. They are changing it to make it so the major parties have more power.

In Vic 2013, the minor parties received 16.57% of the vote, and 16.67% of the senate seats. It doesn't really matter whether it was Muir, or PuP or Sex party. The point is, the Victorian people elected someone to provide checks and balances on the government, and that is what is happening - democracy in action.

Commenter

Scott

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 6:45AM

Your first sentence says it all. Not just about the Senate though. The whole government is riddled with it.

Commenter

Pluto

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 7:48AM

And you don't think the LNP and Labor hacks aren't after the same perks and pay? Name me more than 1/2 a dozen of non ministerial senators from either side of the main political divide and you will surprise me. Anonymous seat warmers. At least we know the names of the Muirs, Lambies, Xenophons and that means there utterances and actions are open to greater scrutiny than the ex-liberal party staffers and labor union time servers who make up he majority of the Senate. Don't get me wrong - I think Muir's election is a joke played by the australian people on themselves (some of us are laughing, the others crying - both involve tears). But it is no bigger joke than the one the Libs, Nats and Labor play on us every election.

Commenter

Pork Barrel

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 7:51AM

It shows that we have idiots voting when they shouldn't be. Make voting non compulsory and those of us that actually understand politics will vote and the dummies will stay at home.

Commenter

Adam

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 8:06AM

It's all a bit like a shakespearean plot, however it's obvious to me that the religious groups are looking to dominate our politics which i feel is a worry, because the family first person mentioned obviously is making money out of poor people through their involvement with affordable housing,....so i feel these religious groups are bad for our communities because it appears to me that they want to keep certain groups of the population poor so they can make money out of them...........this is not what we want dominating the senate i feel....

And to stop this i think the electoral rules need to be changed so voters can number from 1 to whatever, above the line in the senate ballot and choose their own preferences which would stop all this wheeling and dealing.

However, if the conservatives feel the current system benefits them(by them being able to buy preferences), I can't see abbott&co changing the electoral rules...

Commenter

vicaroff

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 8:09AM

0.57% of the primary vote equates to 0.57% chance of getting elected in my opinion. The primary vote should account for 50% of the overall counting. You should only nominate the top three to make things much easier then forget the rest.

Commenter

Ricky Manure

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 8:09AM

The Greens have been pushing for Senate voting reform for decades. They propose Optional Preferential Voting in the Senate, where you vote 1 - 6 (1 - 12 in the case of DD) for your preferred candidates, and then add in as many preferences as you wish after that.

This reform (or very similar reforms) are now belatedly supported by the Liberals (Michael Kroger) and the ALP.

As the system is still proportional, this results in a very representative outcome, and prevents underhand and anti-democratic manipulations such as we have seen in a number of recent Senate polls.

It's a pity people were not listening to yet another common sense and practical proposal from the Greens before the last election.

Commenter

Riddley Walker

Location

Inland

Date and time

August 05, 2014, 8:15AM

So you're preference is for a two horse race between red and blue? Personally, I'm in favour of anything which reduces the dominant power of the two major parties.